I. Brief Report In Nevskaya Gazeta

Comrade Karpov expressed the opinion that the Duma will not be dissolved,
because the Cadets will do everything possible to prevent it. This is already
obvious from their activities in the Duma. The Cadets are trying to combine the
people’s freedom with the old regime. The speaker then went on to deal with the
tactics of the R.S.D.L.P. The Congress, in his opinion, adopted a resolution on
the Duma that was “far from complete and far from correct. We must carry
out the decisions of the united R.S.D.L.P., but we shall supplement them in our
activities”.

In the speaker’s opinion, the boycott was not a mistake. The proletariat had
told them that it must sweep away this Duma. It failed to do this, but what of
that? Of course, the people will only derive benefit from the Duma. The
peasants’ and workers’ deputies will do a lot of good if they act
consistently. But pressure on the Duma will be fruit less. When the government
stands opposed to the people, we must remember that only the combatant sides can
settle the conflict.

We will say to the peasants: learn, comrades, so that you, too, may be ready to
support the revolutionary movement when the time comes.

II. Brief Report in Volna

Comrade Karpov replied to him and to citizen Myakotin. He explained to citizen
Myakotin that a deal is the practical outcome of negotiations, and negotiations
are preparations for a deal. Therefore, citizen Myakotin was quite wrong in
what he said about the Cadet Party. Fully recognising that the decisions of the
Unity Congress were binding on the whole Party, the speaker, however, stated
that some of these resolutions were mistaken, and that this was the cause of the
wrong tone taken by Comrade Bartenyev with regard to the Cadet Party. Exposing
the Cadet Party, said the speaker, was not merely a matter of abusing it, but
the necessary and most advisable means of drawing the broad masses of the people
away from the liberal bourgeoisie—which was half-hearted and timid, and
was striving to make a deal with the old regime—to the
revolutionary-democratic bourgeoisie, which was preparing for a decisive struggle for
power. To discredit a party like the Cadet Party meant giving a powerful impetus
to the political
develop ment
of the masses of the people. Of course, the time
when the conflict will set in does not depend on our will but on the behaviour
of the government, and on the degree of the political consciousness and the
temper of the masses of the people. Our task is to do all in our power to enable
the organised proletariat to be the leader of the victorious revolutionary army
both in the present upsurge and in the inevitable decisive struggle ahead.

Notes

[1]Thepublic meeting was arranged by the
Socio-Political Club in Countess Panina’s St. Petersburg palace on May 9 (22),
1906, in connection with the Duma’s reply to the address from the
throne. Attended by some 3,000 people, over half of whom were workers, it was
the first mass meeting in Russia to be openly addressed by Lenin, who was
introduced as “Karpov”. His speech was an answer to two
speakers—the “Popular Socialist” Myakotin and the Menshevik
Dan (Bartenyev), both of whom advocated a bloc with the Cadets. In conclusion
Lenin proposed a resolution that was carried
almost unanimously.